Search

The study attempted to determine effects of basic client characteristics on the delivery of services to disabled older adults in Canada. Results indicate that there is a weak relationship between age, gender, and level of cognitive functioning and the overall receipt of services. However, when each service is analyzed, only day programs are adequately explained. (Author/CH)

Using data from the 1973 Canadian National Mobility Study of over 6,000 men and women, it is found that socioeconomic factors such as age, self-employment, educational attainment, and amount of unearned income are major determinants of employment past age 65. Financial incentive is a prime factor, particularly for older women. (SK)

The article investigates elder mistreatment in Canada from the National Survey on the Mistreatment of Older Canadians, 2015. Topics discussed include policy, practice, and the law for prevention of the same; advances current prevalence studies on several fronts of the same; and use of ideal sampling of households for the survey.

This article provides an overview of the development of a research agenda on resident-to-resident aggression (RRA) in long-term care facilities by an expert panel of researchers and practitioners. A 1-day consensus-building workshop using a modified Delphi approach was held to gain consensus on nomenclature and an operational definition for RRA, to identify RRA research priorities, and to develop a roadmap for future research on these priorities. Among the six identified terms in the literature, RRA was selected. The top five priorities were: (a) developing/assessing RRA environmental interventions; (b) identification of the environmental factors triggering RRA; (c) incidence/prevalence of RRA; (d) developing/assessing staff RRA education interventions; and (e) identification of RRA perpetrator and victim characteristics. Given the significant harm RRA poses for long-term care residents, this meeting is an important milestone, as it is the first organized effort to mobilize knowledge on this under-studied topic at the research, clinical, and policy levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Canadian policies support “aging in place,” there still will be a number of older adults who will require institutional care in the future. Most research on elder abuse, however, has focused on domestic abuse and has paid less attention to institutional abuse. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review current research to identify gaps in knowledge and methodological issues in the study of institutional abuse. Overall, 49 studies in English and 20 studies in French were reviewed, and 11 key-informant interviews were conducted with methodological experts. Methodological challenges are addressed in light of the review and interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evictions, as markers of housing instability, call attention to the 'housing affordability crisis.' The purpose of this research was to examine the individual and structural circumstances that contributed to eviction transitions in housing careers across the life course, how housing trajectories spiralled into homelessness, and how the confluence of social policies operated during these transitions. Qualitative interviews indicated that transitions from eviction to homelessness were entangled across the life course and stretched across generations. The study shows how housing policies interact with life-course events and other policies to produce negative and costly effects for the precariously housed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Canada has become a preferred destination for human smuggling and trafficking, human trafficking represents a topic that is long on media discussion and short on rigorous academic research. Consequently, little is known about women trafficked to Canada. We carried out interviews with 50 persons, including 20 female sex workers, 15 agency personnel, and 15 key informants to better understand the working lives of Eastern/Central European women trafficked to Canada. This study provides information on the women's transition to Canada, working and living arrangements in Canada, and use of health and social services. In our concluding comments, we emphasize three themes: the complexity of human trafficking and centrality of human agency: the need to offer concrete help rather than punishment; and the futility of "reverse trafficking." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the economic effects of retirement due to poor health in Canada. Disadvantages of health retirees on measures of health and human capital; Significance of pension income and wealth on early retirement; Importance of blanket reductions in disability/invalidity and pension rates.

This article presents abstracts of various articles. Article "Towards a Projection of Families According to their Principal Characteristics" describes the main ingredients of a methodology currently under development for projecting families, these groups of individuals linked by conjugal ties or by blood according to their principal characteristics: family type and number, ages of children. The crux of this methodology is a multidimensional model which can be viewed as an extension of the traditional cohort-components model that incorporates the conjugal and parity statuses of women. With an appropriate generalization of the conjugal status variable and the addition of an appendage for dealing with the special case of step families, this model eventually allows one to shift from the number of women according to demographic status to those of families according to their main characteristics. Article "Population Projections of Registered Indians in Canada, 1991-2015" presents the most recent projections for the population of registered Indians in Canada. Considered is any person who is registered or is entitled to be registered as an Indian according to the Indian Act in the Indian Registry of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND). The projections are based on the method of regional components for which patterns for the period 1975-1990 are analyzed. The data, derived from the DIAND's Indian Registry, have been adjusted for under-enumeration and late registration of events.

Examines the reintegration and retention of the older worker in the labor force, against the backdrop of the changing nature of work and retirement in Canada. Retirement patterns; Changes in the industrial structure and the structure of occupations; Nature of available jobs, their location, and the skills required; Uneven distribution of employment.

Presents a study illustrating how social research can inform the great pension debate in Canada in the 1990s. Issues around which the debate revolves; Methodology of study; Results and conclusions of study.

The relationship between social class structure and political institutions and behaviour has been one of the dominant interests of social scientists since the time of sociologist Karl Marx. More specifically social class structure has been the main source of theory for the explanation of voting behaviour and it is probably the most frequently investigated area empirically. The connection between some indicator of social class and voting behaviour has been amply demonstrated in many studies in many societies. However, the way in which occupation, education or income has its effect on voting has rarely been considered. The purpose of this article is to consider this large array of indicators of status and conditions of living and working, of intervening variables of social involvement, personality characteristics and attitudes. The article will demonstrate which variables should be pursued for further theoretical development and research, and which should be abandoned. The data are drawn from a larger study of voting behaviour, collected at the time of the 1968 Canadian federal election, in the province of Ontario.

Abstract: This paper utilizes Helena Znaniecka Lopata's concept of life frameworks as a lens through which to understand the experience of widowhood amongst elderly Chinese immigrant women living in Toronto, Canada. While Lopata defined life frameworks as including social supports, social relations and social roles, for these widows, personal resources (framed in Chinese cultural context) were also important aspects of life frameworks. In-depth interviews with 20 widows contacted through a Chinese community center were conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese and then transcribed and interpreted through team-based qualitative analyses. These women ranged in age from 69 to 93years and had been in Canada an average of 17years, with over half of them widowed following immigration. Our analysis framed the widows' narratives in terms of four types of supports defined by Lopata: social, service, financial and emotional supports. They had fairly extensive social and service supports focused primarily around family and the Chinese community. Although norms of filial piety traditionally dictate sons as primary supports, daughters predominated as providers of supports to these widows. Interpreted from a life course perspective, financial supports were deemed sufficient, despite overall limited financial means. Emotional support was more nuanced and complex for these widows. Loneliness and feelings of social isolation were prevalent. Nevertheless, themes of acceptance and satisfaction dominated our findings, as did reciprocity and exchange. The narrative accounts of these widows depict a complexity of experience rooted in their biographies as Chinese women and as immigrants, rather than primarily in widowhood itself. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Elder abuse (EA) is a pervasive problem with serious consequences. Previous population-based EA risk factor research has largely used cross-sectional designs that limit causal inferences, or agency records to identify victims, which threatens external validity. Based on a national, prospective, population-based cohort sample of older adults (n = 23,468) over a 3-year period from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, the current study sought to estimate the prevalence of EA and identify risk and protective factors. Past-year prevalence of any EA was 10.0%. Older adults with greater vulnerability related to physical, cognitive and mental health, childhood maltreatment and shared living were at higher EA risk, while social support was protective against EA. Older adults identifying as Black or reporting financial need were at heightened EA risk. This longitudinal, population-based study advances our understanding of EA risk/protective factors across several domains and informs the development of EA prevention strategies., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.)

Chinese older adults may be at increased risk of social isolation and loneliness, and a fragmented understanding exists about the challenges they face for social participation in their neighbourhoods and communities. A scoping review was undertaken to describe the current knowledge on social isolation and loneliness in urban-dwelling Chinese older adults living in Western societies to inform future research, practice, and policy in Canada. Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. The World Health Organization's age-friendly community framework contextualized the study findings. Studies identified issues related to (1) social participation; (2) community support and health services; (3) housing; (4) community and information; (5) respect and social inclusion; (6) outdoor spaces and public buildings; (7) civic participation and employment; and (8) transportation. Social isolation and loneliness is a growing concern in this population in Canada, and additional research is needed to identify its scope and effective interventions.

Resident-to-resident abuse involves aggression and violence that occurs between long-term care (LTC) home residents and can have serious consequences for both aggressors and victims. To date, there has been no attempt to systematically assess the breadth of the problem in Canada. To address this gap, we undertook a scoping review to enhance understanding of resident-to-resident abuse in LTC homes. A redacted Canadian data set on resident-to-resident abuse is also reported on. Nine electronic literature databases were searched; a total of 784 abstracts were identified, but only 32 satisfied the inclusion criteria. The majority of records (75%) were retrospective case studies, qualitative studies, and reviews/commentaries. Of these, only 14 focused exclusively on resident-to-resident abuse. The redacted Canadian data set suggests resident-to-resident abuse makes up approximately one-third of reported abuse cases. Recommendations for future research, clinical practice, and policy are provided to raise awareness of this phenomenon to help decrease its incidence.

Background: This paper provides the findings from a large pilot study, Defining and Measuring Elder Abuse and Neglect, a precursor to a national prevalence study to be conducted in Canada beginning in September 2013. One purpose of this study and the focus of this paper was to determine whether a life course perspective would provide a useful framework for examining elder abuse. The two-year pilot study, 2009-2011, examined the prevalence of perceptions of abuse at each life stage by type of abuse, the importance of early life stage abuse in predicting types of elder abuse, and early life stage abuse as a risk factor for elder abuse., Methods: Older adults who were aged ≥55 years (N = 267) completed a cross-sectional telephone survey, comprising measures of five types of elder abuse (neglect, physical, sexual, psychological, and financial) and their occurrence across the life course: childhood (≤17 years), young adulthood (18 to 24 years), and older adulthood (5 to 12 months prior to the interview date). Data analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations for abuse at the various life stages, and the estimation of logistic regression models that examined predictors of late life abuse, and multinomial logistic regression models predicting the frequency of abuse., Results: Fifty-five percent of the sample reported abuse during childhood, and 34.1% reported abuse during young adulthood. Forty-three percent said they were abused during mature adulthood, and 24.4% said they were abused since age 55 but prior to the interview date of the study. Psychological (42.3%), physical (26.6%), and sexual abuses (32.2%) were the most common abuses in childhood while psychological abuse was the most common type of abuse at each life stage. When the risk factors for abuse were considered simultaneously including abuse during all three life stages, only a history of abuse during childhood retained its importance (OR = 1.81, p = 0.046, CI = 1.01-3.26). Abuse in childhood increased the risk of experiencing one type of abuse relative to no abuse, but was also unrelated to experiencing two or more types of abuse compared to no abuse., Conclusions: Results suggest that a life course perspective provides a useful framework for understanding elder abuse and neglect. The findings indicate that a childhood history of abuse in this sample had a deciding influence on later mistreatment, over and above what happens later in life.

This article reviews developments in the field of elder abuse and neglect since the publication of Elder Abuse and Neglect in Canada (1991). The arguments made here are twofold: first, we have no idea of the size and nature of the problem of abuse and neglect in the community or in institutions; second, we do not know how to solve these problems or their attendant issues that have been masked by rhetoric and the recycling of information for the past 20 years. It is time to move forward from the "awareness phase". What we must tackle in the future is as obvious now as 20 years ago. Our knowledge is incomplete (i.e., our glass remains half full) because we lack the type of investigations we most urgently need: prevalence studies in the community and institutions, serious theory development, and random clinical trials to test our interventions both socially and legally.

In this article, we raise the question as to whether retirement is lost as we currently know and understand it in Canada. With a selected review, we examine retirement research according to the scope of retirement and the new retirement, possible theoretical developments, the timing of transitions into retirement, and life as a retiree including the quality or lack of pensions. Accordingly, we propose that retirement is undergoing modifications on the basis of several trends that commenced before the 2008 economic downturn. The data would appear to lean towards the emergence of a different type of retirement, insofar as the collective Canadian vision of retirement is lost, notwithstanding the economic meltdown in global markets.